Alice Illustrated in Can't Be Late for Easter

There's no better time to sit and write a blog than on a rainy spring day such as this.  The weather's been typical spring from what I've read.  A little rain, a little snow, a lot of sun, repeat.  My hopeful attempts at taking my kayak out last Monday got thwarted when I injured my right hand doing something stupid, like putting my arm through the sleeve of a sweater while exiting the walk-in closet.  I whacked my hand on the edge of the door, as it punched its way through the arm of the sweater.  What resulted was an early Easter for me with a purple egg-sized hematoma on the surface of my hand.  Since then, the Easter bunny would be envious with all the colors my hand has come up with while healing.  However!  After lots of icing it with a bag of frozen peas, and a night's rest, I was able to use it again.  It may not have found a pot of gold, but that hand sure absorbed the end of the rainbow.

While finishing up Cissy's St. Patrick's Day outfit, I realized 

I would have plenty of time to start a project for Easter.  I can't recall if I've ever done an Easter doll, or dressed one specifically for Easter, but surely, I must have in the past.  Spring and Easter delight me no end.  The days turn soft, and everything greens up so prettily.  Small flowers emerge from the soil leaving tiny spots of bright color where once only mud congealed.

I begin in earnest to poke around on Pinterest for newly posted vintage images of spring and Easter and am never disappointed.  I found a delightful book from the 1980's that I'd never seen before.  It was the story of the Easter bunny (no photo, sorry), and it helped inspire me to think up something to do for the holiday.

There was also Ruby Red Toy's offering of a Little Red Riding Hood for Easter.  Her basket would not contain bread and wine, but Easter eggs.  The odd ball thing was that her dress was this hideous red, white and blue Americana quilt looking nightmare.  I do question these designers at times.  If you've followed me long, you know how  

much I love Red Riding Hood.  I wanted the doll regardless.  I would make her a dress if need be, but shortly after her pre-order release, Fred gave us a link to DollsHeart, a BJD costume company, which I believe is a subsidiary of Leanie Company, with a link to outfits that fit our Ruby Red Fashion Friend dolls.  They had a Little Red Riding Hood outfit, so I bought it and the dress will replace the silly Americana one. The point is, when I want something, I don't rest until I get it right.  This is not the first time Red has been associated with Easter.  A Victorian artist illustrated her with the Easter bunny in the European fashion of Little Red Cap.  

I was also going great guns with buying up as a many beautiful Old World Christmas Easter ornaments from the past.  I'm enjoying my little table tree so much!  These ornaments are as much fun to collect as dolls are.  For me, at least.  While I was doing this, I happened upon a seller that was offering the bunny family from 20 years ago.  These are absolutely gorgeous!

However, my favorite just might be the chick in the egg. I bought a bunch of carrots ornament, and a cabbage ornament to go with the Peter Rabbit one.  Just when the tree was full, an OWC Easter basket ornament came up, so I snapped that one up, too.  It hasn't arrived but will in time for Easter.  And because Easter falls on March 31rst, I intend on keeping the tree decorated as such until the end of April when I'll switch it out for a late spring to summer theme.  I'm a collector.  What can I say?

With the tree taken care of, I pulled out my Tonner Tiny Betsy Easter Trunk.  I've been adding to it for  two or three years now.  One of the holy grails I'd been looking for, Tiny Betsy Carrot Top, came up at a reasonable price last fall, and I snapped her up as well.  So, she got to debut this year with Tiny Betsy in her Easter egg dress.  

As all this Easter decorating was transpiring, I was thinking, thinking about what I wanted to do for my next project.  I seriously considered making something for Peggy Sue, but she looks so darned cute in her Mardi Gras costume, that she'll probably stay dressed in that until next Halloween.  She does have three great Halloween costumes that I made for her.

That took me to looking up to the next shelf of 

dolls, when I spotted Alice Illustrated, my 12" Wendy Lawton that I transformed several years back.  She was still in her Year of the Rabbit costume and all of a sudden, the creative light blinked on, and I knew exactly what I was going to do.  For those of you new to my blog, there was a book called The Illustrated Alice, and as the story unfolded, it was illustrated using vintage artwork from many varied artists who'd illustrated the story from the long ago past.  This inspired me to make the Wendy Lawton doll, Prim and Proper, into Alice Illustrated.  From there I costumed her in the many different  ways she was drawn.  I think there's a total of fifteen costumes in her box now.

Okay, since Year of the Rabbit was over, I decided to send her down a different rabbit hole and give the White Rabbit a turn as the Easter bunny.  Why not?!  I haven't seen this done before, so I was definitely going to have fun doing this.  I do enjoy being original from time to time.

My friend, Betsy, seemed a little uncertain when I told her what I was doing, but that's the beauty of coming up with something original.  Can I do it and do it right?  Can I make something incredibly unique and beautiful at the same time?  With each project I try to achieve a higher quality of work, and it doesn't always translate.  I guess it really depends on what I'm doing and where I'm at emotionally and artistically at the time.

Alice Illustrated is one of my favorite dolls to dress.  A 12" child doll, she petite and sweet.  There will never be a shortage of things to do with her as the number of Alice illustrators grows every year.  There's been a blue and white striped dress project that's been on hold for ages now.  There is always some other immediate inspiration or project to entertain myself with.

Alice's little dress was a work in progress, yet I knew I wanted it to be of yellow silk.  There was the question of apron or pinafore.  There was the question of style.  Her style, aside from the 

original drawings by Tenniel, have often reflected the time period they were drawn.  Frankly, anything goes as long as the story remains the same.  I've done quite a few other Alice dolls, and some of my most memorable and enjoyable, were those that were the most unusual.  

I have lace.  A ton of lace in varying sizes and widths and playing with them on the yellow silk was an adventure in itself.  How will this look?  How does that look?  Can I combine different laces?  Let's just roll with this!  

I had this lovely, embroidered tulle that I used for a wedding veil or something, and there wasn't a lot of it.  It would also need to be trimmed down to create an overlay for the skirt of the dress, and it took me quite a while to figure this all out since once cut, that was it.  

Another inspiration for this costume was the dress I made for my 16" Alice Liddel from the book The Real Alice.  It was in the rows of lace, and buttons on the bodice that I borrowed for Alice Illustrated.

Her shoes would match the ribbons I would use for a sash, and the hat band.

Here's another notion that's becoming difficult to acquire.  Double-faced silk ribbon.  Lots of Etsy sellers call their ribbons this, but what they have is polyester satin.  The silk is soft and drapes beautifully.  It's a bit more expensive, but it's the difference between milk and cream.  In the extreme.

Farmhouse Fabrics, my go-to for silks had this lovely deep lavender ribbon and I bought up some of what was left of this color as it was a special color they'd gotten in for the season, and the supplier didn't have any more.  It finally arrived yesterday, and I was able to finish the project.  The color was perfect!  A rich, Easter purple to offset the lemon-yellow silk.

Alice's shoes are of a bluer silk, but the ribbons that cross and tie around her ankles are the same lavender.  Three widths of the silk ribbon were used on this costume.

As an afterthought, I added tiny white silk bows to the points of the overlay tulle.  It's always a question for me of too much, or not enough trim and frou-frou.

Then there was the hat.  I'd made it a few days ago while waiting for the ribbon to arrive.  Alice Liddel's hat is so pretty, and I thought, why not give Alice Illustrated a similar one?

As I was looking at poor Alice Liddell, I came back to the idea that I really do need to rearrange dolls once in a while.  She's been hidden behind three other rows of dolls for years now.  She keeps good company with my American Girl, Caroline.  Tallest girls go in the back.  

And this is what I came up with for Alice Illustrated's hat.  The other Alice hat has a flatter brim, and I didn't have a hat mold like it in this size, so the ribbons beneath don't show as well.  But they are made the same, just from a less wide ribbon.  Every girl wants her own style anyway.  Right?

And then there was the issue of the White Rabbit taking a turn as the Easter Bunny.  

I knew I would needle felt him and I had many vintage Easter bunny images to select from.  What I wanted most, was to provide him with a hote to carry his eggs in.

I haven't heard this term used in years, but a hote is a gathering basket that is worn with straps on your back.  These were popular during the Victorian era, and I first came across one when Pleasant Company made one for Samantha in her summer story.  

Since I hadn't heard the term "hote" used in a very long time, I contacted Sheryl Williams, who's more than knowledgeable about these things, and asked her.  She concurred that this was the correct term.  So there.  LOL

The White Rabbit taking a departure from his normal routine, was going to need a special look.  It wasn't just that this illustration was of a white rabbit, but he had the look, the clothing, the stature and form I was after.  It's hilarious, but a lot of these Victorian drawings of the Easter bunny give him an almost human form beneath his clothing. This once as a bit of a mix.  Ditch the pipe.  Add the pocket watch.

Samantha's hote from her Summer Story.  I used this one as my model.

This little fellow is about 5.5" tall, from his pointed toes to his curled over ears.

He carries his trusty pocket watch so that he won't be late for Easter.

I needle felted him three eggs to carry in his hote, and Alice's basket has a total of five eggs adding a yellow and pink one.

Throughout working on him, he was very difficult to stand up on his own, given the pointed feet in the illustration.  

So, I felted him a patch of grass to pose him on.  A stand if you will.  I think it came out cute.  His feet are pinned to the wee hill of grass with long silk pins.

I had a blast creating this set for Alice Illustrated.  It's as Easter-y as it gets!  She'll be in this dress with the White Rabbit until I get inspired to make her something different.  Once again, a bright spot on my shelf.

I've needle felted several small rabbits in the past, but I think my favorite was the Koren one for the Korean Alice I did long ago. I thought I'd share him and two others with you.  The March Hare was done for the Gwynedd Hudson Alice outfit (white with black trim).  The tiny one with the clocks was a gift to a friend.

Blaier's hotel room got decorated for Easter this month and she's wearing blue this year, as where last year, she was in pink.  I'd gotten her the tabletop Easter tree with the egg and carrot ornaments that American Girl did for The Girl of Today eons ago, and it's as sweet as can be.  Her bear got the egg costume from the Bitty Baby set.  Just having fun over here.

I thought I'd also share a photo of the Ruby Red Fashion Friends doll, Aurora, that I just got.  She and her costume are incredibly beautiful.  To me, it has a Victorian flair to it.  That hat!  She even has a little suitcase for ocean liner travel.  I have no idea if their Red Riding Hood will arrive for Easter, but that's okay.  They're usually late in getting us holiday dolls in time for the actual holiday.  The White Rabbit is never late with his trusty pocket watch.

I hope you'll enjoy the selection of images I'm sharing below.  With a week to go, I still have time to make something else for Easter.  Something for Esme perhaps.  When I'm on a roll, its best to keep going.

Wishing you a delightful and Happy Easter!, Melissa

Korean Rabbit

Gwynedd Hudson's March Hare

Classic Tenniel

Alice Liddell, the real Alice

Aurora

Me, in another time and place.

 

Cissy's St. Patrick's Day

Welcome back to my journal on the creative process!  It occurred to me the other day that I'd completely missed Valentine's Day this year with my dolls.  I was so focused on Chinese New Year and Mardi Gras that Valentine's Day slipped by just about unnoticed.  Well, not entirely.  I did pull out my Ruby Red Fashion Friends Valentine doll and set her out for display.  Still, that was about it.  

One of the things I started doing new this year, was to keep my little metal tabletop "Christmas" tree out and decorate it for the seasons and holidays.  Maybe putting my Christmas ornaments away this year was too much to bear.  But I created a New Year tree with assorted Old World Christmas ornaments.  I loved it.  I wanted badly to make one for Valentine's Day and that didn't happen.  Those ornaments are expensive!  And to fill all the branches, isn't cheap.  Next year.  But that doesn't mean that I won't be collecting for it over the next ten months.  I also think a Chinese New Year one would be delightful.  Depending on when

Chinese New Year falls next year, the ornaments could be up for a very short time.  Given all that ridiculous planning and thinking, I decided not to let St. Patrick's Day get away from me and filled the branches with adorable OWC ornaments.  Two are still on the way.  One of St. Patrick, himself, and the other is a leprechaun.  I've been a diehard fan of OWC ornaments for as long as I can recall, but it never dawned on me to have a tabletop tree year-round.  I'm enjoying it so very much.  I have a great selection of OWC Easter ornaments now, too, so on March the 18th, they'll go up and might stay through the month of April.  April is normally when Easter comes, but this year they squeezed it onto the end of March.  My doll rooms are a mix of St. Patrick's Day and Easter right now.  Tiny Betsy's Easter trunk is out and displayed.  My Ruby Red Fashion Friend dolls, Tulip and Willow from last year (the Easter dolls) are out as well.  If I can only enjoy them for a month, then let it be the entire month.

Blaire has been St. Patrick's Day-ing for a couple of weeks now.  The story is that there is an American Girl hotel in every country, and she travels to many lands, always staying at the AG Hotel.  I love the hotel they made for her.  And since it's like a little bedroom, its perfect for all seasons and themes.  In Ireland, she hikes and visits the castles, and will participate in a couple of Irish Step Dance productions this year.  

OMG!  You're learning that I play with dolls.  You bet!  

And then there's Dawn.  My tiny Dawn is ready for St. Patrick's Day as well in her green gown.  I like purchasing these costumes NRFB.  It makes playing with them all the more fun.  

My dolls and their costuming inspire me and help me enjoy each holiday even more.  Of course, these things are not in the main rooms of the house, but I can sneak ornament trees into the dining room and living room.  Discreetly and tastefully.  I'm sure my husband tries his best to ignore all my passions, and that's all I'll say on that matter.

Earlier in the year, I found myself needing to part with some of my Ruby Red Fashion Friends, and the ones I purchased last year that would have been perfect to display for St. Patrick's Day, got sold.  Instead of agonizing over parting with them, I decided to make Cissy a beautiful emerald green outfit to celebrate the day.

Her outfit was designed on the fly by mixing patterns and making things up as I went along.

The outfit consists of a circle skirt, blouse, coat, hat and purse.  The blouse is made from a pale peach silk and the rest of the costume was made from this gorgeous green cotton velveteen that I purchased from the U.K.  This one store had the thinnest, loveliest cotton velveteen imaginable.  Thank goodness I had plenty on hand to do this given Cissy's size and the nature of the cloth which has a nap to it. 

The linings were done with a green and rust woven silk.  I spend a great deal of time with my fabrics before beginning to lay out patterns and pick up my scissors.  

I happened to have a pair of green Cissy shoes, that matched the costume pretty well.  They're a bit different from the normal cross-band heels as they have two bands over the toes giving them a more closed toe shoe appearance. 

Here's a detail of the back of the costume.  I did a great deal of measuring and pattern making with the circle skirt as it takes a great chunk out of the yardage.  The skirt is fully lined for a smooth appearance at the hem.  I guess the first circle skirt I made was for Dolly, and it helped in drafting the larger pattern for Cissy.

The coat is everything.  I'm in love with this coat.  It boasts long darts in the front to form a pretty silhouette.  Three little buttons ending in a self-fabric bow are sewn down the front of the coat.  It closes with two snaps.  I love the swing style of these 1950's coats.  

I made the skirt first so that I could make sure I made the coat long enough to reach the hem of the skirt.  Its little things like this that seem to take forever with careful planning.  While I have adapted patterns to create unique styles, the patterns I use for Cissy are original Cissy patterns reproduced.  Most of these patterns fit beautifully, but this one pattern set seemed to be made for a smaller Cissy so many adjustments needed to be made.  I guess this is good practice for me, but when I'm dealing with expensive fabric that I have a limited amount of, no mistakes can be made.

I knew that I wanted to add some kind of shamrock embellishment to this outfit, so in the vein of poodle skirt style, I was going to add a sequined shamrock to the skirt.  

The seller of these appliques had "an assistant" packing and shipping and sent me only one of the shamrocks when there should have been three.  I was shocked when I opened the package to find only one and wrote to the seller right away.  I read the description several times to make sure it wasn't a mistake on my part, so whether or not it was, she sent me two more.  

After the coat had been finished, I realized that the shamrock on the skirt would never be seen under the coat, so I added the other two to the coat!  I don't usually do this kind of thing.  When I sew for a doll, I try to make something for a tiny person.  In this instance, Cissy gets to be a doll with embellishments of the kind you'd find on 8" Madame Alexander dolls.  No 1950's deb would dare do such a bold thing to her clothing!  But there is no mistaking that this outfit is for St. Patrick's Day now.  And you know what?  I can always remove the shamrocks from the coat if I want to be boring or turn it into something else.  I won't though!

I had a hard time choosing just the right photo of this coat, so here are a few with slightly different poses.

This one shows a peek of shamrock on the skirt where the coat is open in front.

This one shows the placement of the shamrocks on the coat nicely.

And the back. 

This shows off the lovely full collar on the coat. 

Of course, Cissy needed an accessory, and a little velveteen purse was just the thing.  Small and sweet with a kiss-lock.  

I love making these purses and need to purchase a few more frames.

Here's a close up of the upper portion of the coat with its three buttons and bow.  

Another pair of earrings just arrived in the mail as I'm writing this journal entry.  They're gemstone shamrocks and were targeted for the costume.  Well, I made Cissy these fun earrings while waiting for those to arrive, and since they're in these photos, they might just stay.  Like the appliques, they help the viewer make no mistake that this is a St. Patrick's Day outfit.

This little hat came from another pattern set.  It's simple but can be dressed up with ribbons or other pretty embellishments.  Silk ribbon is not easy to attach to a curved surface, but I did my best and Cissy enjoys wearing this bonnet.

I've enjoyed celebrating St. Patrick's Day with my dolls this year.  I have the last two ornaments coming in the mail to hang on my table tree, and Cissy is wearing the green.  I feel a little better now about selling those two dolls - sort of - now that I have one doll outfitted for the holiday.  It's still chilly this time of year, so Cissy will stay cozy in her luxurious velveteen coat and bonnet.

March 17th is coming up next Sunday.  It's time for corned beef, cabbage and potatoes.  Next stop, Easter!  And I've been enthusiastically planning for this as well.

In the meantime, I hope you'll enjoy a few of my favorite antique postcards and illustrations I selected this year.  

Erin Go Bragh!  Melissa